Confirming a widely expected move, Jeff Grybowski, Governor Carcieri's chief of staff, and one of the smartest people in his administration, is returning to the private sector. The gov's office just put out a release

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Governor Donald L. Carcieri today named Brian P. Stern of East Greenwich as his new Chief of Staff, beginning on March 1st?xml:namespace>

I quickly tire of wall-to-wall coverage in cases involving celebs, so it's not in my DNA to self-immerse in stories like that involving the death of Anna Nicole Smith. Writing in the New York Times, Caryn James pretty well nailed it:

Without any actual career to back up her claim on the public, the question becomes why did we watch? The unsettlingly vapid reason: because we could.

Giovanni Cicione, who emerged in December as a contender to succeed Patricia Morgan as chair of the Rhode Island Republican Party, has passed a key hurdle by winning the backing of Governor Donald L. Carcieri.

Cicione, a 36-year-old Barrington lawyer and GOP activist, told me this morning that he met with the governor about two weeks ago "and he's expressed his support for me running for the chairmanship."

Once upon a time, a pair of Providence city councilors found out that moving forward a progressive agenda was much more difficult than they thought would be the case. (Note: This is one of those dodgy older links that is highly irregular. Suffice it to say, it concerns a 2004 story I wrote in the Phoenix about how Miguel Luna and David Segal ran into a lot of frustration while trying to make progress in bringing First Source to fruition.

Although Governor Carcieri publicly projects a sense of optimism, the state -- to at least some extent -- has gotten bogged down in budget problems and the ongoing federal probe of State House influence-peddling. Despite all this, the governor struck a characteristically upbeat tone during a taping today of WPRI-WNAC's Newsmakers

Have you been unfairly slapped with a ticket? Judge Caprio is a pretty understanding guy, but fighting tickets (like the one for a parking prohibition contained in this tree) takes time (and perhaps more money to park in the PPD garage, too).

Although 1997, when the Dallas-based Belo Corporation bought the Providence Journal Company, was a whole different era in the media industry, the Journal Company's many TV stations -- and not the ProJo itself -- were the main attraction. It's not hard to see why: while newspapers, particularly one with a strong journalistic tradition like the Journal's, are prestigious properties to own, TV is where the big money is.

UPDATE:While Yorke is offering only a "no comment" in response to media inquiries, including one from me, DePetro sounded quite happy in a brief clip broadcast on WPRO. For those with an appreciation for irony, this lovefest will launch -- you guessed it -- on Valentine's Day, February 14.

Former WHJJ-AM talk-show host John DePetro has recently been seen at the Celona proceedings in US District Court, and now we know why

There's another squeeze on the news side at the Providence Journal. Here are the details, as reported in a piece I prepared for this week's Phoenix:

When the Providence Journal focuses its resources, it remains quite a good newspaper.

This was the case last week, when the ProJo did an impressive job in offering the state’s best and most comprehensive coverage of three important stories: the governor’s budget proposal; the latest developments in an ongoing federal probe of State House influence-peddling; and the release of grand jury testimony in the 2003 Station nightclub fire disaster.

Last Monday, 2/29, the West Broadway Neighborhood Association (WBNA) responded to complaints from neighbors of the GroveStreetSchool that workers onsite claimed that the building was going to be demolished.?xml:namespace>

In a short piece to be published in this week's Phoenix, Brian C. Jones takes a look at the budget math of how Governor Carcieri has proposed taking about $15 million in state child-care subsidies from thousands of low-income families -- about the same amount of state revenue eliminated with last year's upper bracket tax cut:

Proponents of publicly financing Rhode Island elections are slated to hold a 3 pm rally in the State House rotunda tomorrow to highlight the introduction of related legislation. This will be the third year in which Clean Elections legislation has been introduced, so we'll see if it gets any further than in the past.